Sorry, Holly, but you didn’t stand a chance against the power of “Bret-mania!”

After eleven weeks of fundraising, firing and feuding, Bret Michaels was finally named The Celebrity Apprentice during the show’s live season finale May 23 — and he deserved it! Runner-up Holly Robinson Peete was a worthy adversary, but if you look back at his achievements throughout the season, you can’t deny he was the stronger competitor. Donald Trump (and all you voters, of course) definitely made the right decision.

So, what’s the story behind Bret’s votes? Did he really deserve to become the next Celebrity Apprentice, or did he just garner sympathy votes for all the coverage he’s gotten since suffering from a brain hemorrhage last month AND a stroke last week? After all, you have to admit it was heartbreaking watching him walk out onto that set for the live finale, since you could see he was having difficulty.

As it turns out, Bret doesn’t care why you voted for him! After seeing Holly in her “baby-making dress” during the finale, Bret told the Donald he’d accept votes any way he could get them.

“I didn’t travel this far in this much pain to lose,” Bret said, and he stood by those words till the very end.

Donald’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, sure doesn’t think Bret had to rest on sympathy votes. “You’re a force of nature,” she said to him during the episode’s final minutes. “You have reason to be here on merit.”

And I agree with Ivanka! Bret was consistently the best project manager, proving to everyone that he wasn’t “stoned since third grade,” as some people assumed before seeing what he was capable of. The fact that he was competing to raise money for the American Diabetes Association — Bret is living with diabetes, himself — gave him the extra push he needed to dominate the competition.

If you need further proof of Bret’s hard work throughout the season, just check out this video recap:

Still, it wasn’t a total loss for Holly. Her charity, the HollyRod Foundation, was still given $250,000 from Snapple.